They shall arise in the States,
They shall report Nature, laws, physiology, and happiness,
They shall illustrate Democracy and the kosmos,
They shall be alimentive, amative, perceptive,
They shall be complete women and men, their pose brawny and supple,
    their drink water, their blood clean and clear,
They shall fully enjoy materialism and the sight of products, they
    shall enjoy the sight of the beef, lumber, bread-stuffs, of
    Chicago the great city. 
They shall train themselves to go in public to become orators and
    oratresses,
Strong and sweet shall their tongues be, poems and materials of
    poems shall come from their lives, they shall be makers and finders,
Of them and of their works shall emerge divine conveyers, to convey gospels,
Characters, events, retrospections, shall be convey’d in gospels,
    trees, animals, waters, shall be convey’d,
Death, the future, the invisible faith, shall all be convey’d.

} Weave in, My Hardy Life

Weave in, weave in, my hardy life,
Weave yet a soldier strong and full for great campaigns to come,
Weave in red blood, weave sinews in like ropes, the senses, sight weave in,
Weave lasting sure, weave day and night the wet, the warp, incessant
    weave, tire not,
(We know not what the use O life, nor know the aim, the end, nor
    really aught we know,
But know the work, the need goes on and shall go on, the
    death-envelop’d march of peace as well as war goes on,)
For great campaigns of peace the same the wiry threads to weave,
We know not why or what, yet weave, forever weave.

} Spain, 1873-74

Out of the murk of heaviest clouds,
Out of the feudal wrecks and heap’d-up skeletons of kings,
Out of that old entire European debris, the shatter’d mummeries,
Ruin’d cathedrals, crumble of palaces, tombs of priests,
Lo, Freedom’s features fresh undimm’d look forth—­the same immortal
    face looks forth;
(A glimpse as of thy Mother’s face Columbia,
A flash significant as of a sword,
Beaming towards thee.)

Nor think we forget thee maternal;
Lag’d’st thou so long? shall the clouds close again upon thee? 
Ah, but thou hast thyself now appear’d to us—­we know thee,
Thou hast given us a sure proof, the glimpse of thyself,
Thou waitest there as everywhere thy time.

} By Broad Potomac’s Shore

By broad Potomac’s shore, again old tongue,
(Still uttering, still ejaculating, canst never cease this babble?)
Again old heart so gay, again to you, your sense, the full flush
    spring returning,
Again the freshness and the odors, again Virginia’s summer sky,
    pellucid blue and silver,
Again the forenoon purple of the hills,
Again the deathless grass, so noiseless soft and green,
Again the blood-red roses blooming.

Perfume this book of mine O blood-red roses! 
Lave subtly with your waters every line Potomac! 
Give me of you O spring, before I close, to put between its pages! 
O forenoon purple of the hills, before I close, of you! 
O deathless grass, of you!